“Blogosphere” is a term used to describe the totality of all blog-related websites. Generally, a blog is a web-based journal that contains periodic posts, normally in reverse chronological order. The posts are typically added by the author of the blog, but some blogs allow readers to also add comments. The variety and number of blogs within the blogosphere has grown exponentially since the inception of blogging.
It is often difficult to quickly get an idea as to what is being discussed across the blogosphere. Because blog content is self-authored without any editorial control, there is often very little structure to most blogs. Moreover, blogs are not easily broken down into distinct categories as an individual blog may contain a wide variety of topics. Accordingly, the nature of blogs, as well as the rapid growth of the blogosphere, creates a challenge for users to quickly gleam what the top topics are that are being discussed in the blogosphere or to locate blogs containing topics of interest.
One current approach for tracking topics on the blogosphere tends to focus only on the top sites that are being linked to at any given moment without regard to the content each site carries. When the number of blogs was low, this model was somewhat satisfactory because there was not a great variety in the types of blogs available. Today, however, blogs cover just about every topic imaginable and users are typically only interested in a small subset of the topics discussed on blogs.
Another approach for tracking topics on the blogosphere allows authors to “tag” pieces of content or terms when writing posts on blogs. However, this is a manual effort that relies on individuals' opinions of what content is important. Moreover, blogs that do not employ such “tags,” although relevant, are not included in the approach.
Accordingly, a tool to organize the blogosphere in such a way that is predictable so users can quickly understand what topics are being discussed in the blogosphere would be desirable. Additionally, a tool that allows users to focus on areas of interest within the blogosphere would be advantageous. Further, it would be advantageous if the tool was automatically generated without requiring individuals to manually mark content on blogs.